Case Title: 1. Rethinking Grading Part 1

Element Title: Katie's Grades (15 of 16)

Below is the Language Arts section from Katie's report card. As you can see she has an asterix next to her writing and preparation scores, because she is not working on the grade level expectation in those areas, but she did make her expected level of progress as laid out in her intervention plan. If we had just put a '1' or 'F' we would not be describing her performance in any meaningful way (we knew she was below grade level on day 1). Now elementary folks are probably nodding their head somewhat, but right about now there is a look of terror/disgust that is washing over the faces of middle and high school teachers reading this. "SO WHAT IS THE OVERALL GRADE?"

That is a very good question. I don't know if there is a right answer to that. Would an 'A' be fair? I mean she is basically "failing" the writing aspect of a language arts class. The big thing is first being consistent as a district/school. If in classroom X the final grade would be an A and in classroom Y, it would be a C then you have a problem. Truth be told most people will probably just average across (substituting a 1 for the 4*) and get a 3.2, which would translate to B-esque type grade. What do you think is fair?

Language Arts Report for Katie Doe

Reading

3

Preparation

+

Writing

3*

Participation

+

Listening

4

Cooperation

++

Speaking

4

Language Rules

4

An * denotes student is working on modified expectations from grade level standards